How I’m Making $25 Per Month Blogging

Making money online is not a new thing for me. I’ve been earning (almost) all of my income working virtually since 2014. However, blogging as an income stream didn’t occur to me until this year. I started reading blogger’s income reports then purchased Ruth Soukup’s Elite Blog Academy course and thought “I could totally do this!”

I started Freelancing Mama so that potential clients could get a feel for my style. I hoped that I could get some service based work from this blog. And I did!

However, once I had baby #2, I realized that working from home was getting a lot more complicated. I started seeing how I would need to be incredibly organized and very flexible with my time. This is when blogging and creating products became appealing. I am able to write posts and create products at midnight (like I am now!), 6:00 am, 12 pm, on the weekends or whenever.

Virtual assistant and client work usually needs to be done during normal business hours. Even if there’s some flexibility, I need to be available and checking my email during business hours to answer any questions or address any urgent issues. I don’t have time to do that at a high volume right now…and honestly, I don’t have the desire to either.

That said, everything takes work. Online business of any kind is hard work. I plan to continue working with clients and offering services for the foreseeable future. I even plan to ramp up in the next few years when both of my children are in school. But I’m also giving blogging and creating products a go. I’m interested in seeing if I can make this work. I believed in myself enough to go from a traditional career to a virtual one. I believe I can pivot again.

Now, let’s get to the good stuff!

How did the last two months go?

I’m combining September and October’s blog income reports because I didn’t spend much time on my blog for the past two months. During this time, I came back from maternity leave and ramped up my freelancing business which left me with less time to spend on the blog.

I plan on spending more time on the blog going forward and will break the income reports down by month again starting in November.

Monetization

In August, I monetized my blog. I did this with ads and affiliates. I plan to add products to the mix in 2018.

Ad networks

Right now I’m with Google Adsense. Once I reach 30,000 page views per month (which seems like an insane goal right now), I will apply to join Mediavine, which I’ve heard great things about.

Affiliates

I became an affiliate for several different places whose services and products I love. I’m not going to promote something that I don’t use and enjoy. That said, here are the affiliates and their rates.

• Grammarly

Rates: $.20 for each user that downloads the free grammar app, $20 for each user that upgrades to premium

I use Grammarly every day. You can read more about how I use it here and try it out for yourself!

You can sign up to become a Grammarly affiliate here.

• Amazon Associates

Rate: 4% of the product’s price

I use Amazon affiliate links for products that I recommend. When someone buys something from that link, I receive a commission. My post on Potty Training Using the Oh Crap! Method includes affiliate links.

You can sign up to become an Amazon Associate here.

• A2 Hosting

Rate: $85 per sale

I did a bunch of research and enlisted my tech-savvy husband when looking for hosting for my website. We settled on A2. They have 5x the speed for WordPress sites (which is what many websites and almost all blogs are running).

I’m promoting this affiliate through my post, How to Set Up Your Freelancing Website in Five Easy Steps.

You can sign up to become an A2 Hosting affiliate here.

Products

I don’t currently offer any products, but I have one in the works!

I’m partnering with my friend and former coworker, Flavia, to release a course on becoming a successful virtual assistant. We’ve found that there’s a gap in the course market for high-level, comprehensive virtual assistant training. We’re currently putting together a course and will post more about it when we have a launch date.

I’m also working on a freebie for my email list – a PDF guide of my favorite freelancing resources.

Website Traffic

Traffic has decreased over the past two months.

September’s traffic was 3,019 visits. October’s traffic was 2,260 visits. The numbers are trending downward which confirms that when I don’t put as much time into promoting my site, the visits decrease.

The good thing is that my traffic is still much higher than before I started promoting the site.

Here are my three most popular posts this month:

1. Daytime Potty Training Using the Oh Crap! Me
2. 10 Quotes About Motherhood That Will Make You Cry
3. I Will Talk About My Miscarriage

Social media stats

About half of the time I spend on my blog goes to promoting on social media. Here are the sites I’m active on.

Pinterest

80 followers on my Pinterest page (+14 since August)

510 average daily visitors (-66 since August)

Facebook

97 likes on my Facebook page (+1 since August)

Right now, I’m focused on building up these two platforms since they generate the most website traffic. I may add an Instagram account eventually.

Income

My earnings are holding steady at about $25 per month.

Total earnings: $50.12

AdSense: $8.17

Amazon Affiliate: $41.95

Other:

I also received an Ergobaby 360 carrier for review. The carrier retails at $160.

Some of these earnings won’t be paid out until I reach a certain threshold ($10 to $100).

I’m pleased with the progress of my blog and I can’t wait to see how it will continue to grow.